Many turn out for Family Fun Night

By Kevin Dye

Staff Writer

A large number of families turned out for an evening of fun activities and dinner at Norwood Elementary Thursday night, Nov. 15, thanks to the efforts of the Norwood Elementary Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO).

Harvest Family Fun Night offered families a chance to come into their child’s school and enjoy an evening together creating crafts, playing games taking part in fun-filled activities and enjoy a meal together. It also gave the parents to get an upclose view of the school’s classroom and student’s work that lined the halls and rooms.

The night’s activities included creating a harvest tree craft, participating in bowling with pumpkins, throwing mini marshmallows at a chocolate covered teacher, diving for prizes in an inflatable swimming pool filled with hay, a traditional cake walk with a new spin and everyone was treated to dinner in the cafeteria.

All of the fun activities were free for families to enjoy thanks to the efforts of the Norwood PTO. Norwood Principal Gary Bell said the PTO is a great partner for the school in the education of Jefferson Local students.

“The PTO does such a good job here,” Bell said. “Tom Looby took over the organization a couple of years ago and while he is not the head of the PTO this year, he has provided great leadership for the organization. They help raise so much money for our reading program. Everything tonight is free thanks to the PTO. They provided all of the funds for the food, crafts and activities.”

The Norwood PTO has been a great help in providing the needed tools for assisting in the education of elementary children. Last year the PTO held a candy sale, thanks to the help of several students and generosity of parents, that ended up providing Norwood Elementary with $14,000 for guided reading. Those funds helped the school to purchase literacy-based reading assessment kits and books for Norwood students.